Serenity
by JacobB1996
Summary: is a completed, original, six episode miniseries, that bases itself off of A and Hanna.
1. First

Serenity's eyes trail from the smudged mirror to the rickety toilet while her eyes dilate and her spinal cord erupts into fits of shivering as she remembers how brutalized and how hated she was by her own parents.

Her phone rings in her pocket and she smiles, happy that a distraction has just made its appearance. "Hello?" She demands.

"You called earlier," a deep voice resonates through Serenity's eardrum, and her eyes widen, disappointed and scared that this person has just contacted her. She feels her eyelids drooping and rushes of memory coursing through her brain.

"I did not." Serenity denies the fact but her voice sounds frightening yet still quite unconvincing. "I did not call you," Serenity repeated, to add an air of cognizance to her unconvincing inflection. Not giving time for her captor to make a reply, Serenity hung up the phone, and stuck it in to her pocket, and exited the restroom immediately and walked up the dingy roadway.

* * *

Caleb looked in the mirror. He saw Darlene, smiling at him, taking a swig of liquor. "So, you going to find her?" Darlene teased, and Caleb's eyes flinched, as if he were not expecting Darlene to talk let alone ask about something so personal. He could smell the reek of liquor even halfway across the room and he knew she was drunk.

"Excuse me?" Caleb forced the words out, and he felt his stomach twisting into knots and knots of nervousness.

"You've been talking about your lover nonstop. I was just wondering..." Darlene teased, raising her liquor bottle in the air, and falling backwards in the bed. She giggled, nervously, as if she were expecting something rather unsightly. "Do you plan to reunite?" Her voice was very macabre. It sounded as if she were bullying him.

Caleb's eyes widened and he knew what he had to do but he didn't quite want to do it. "You're going with me."


	2. Second

Darlene walked out of the house alongside Caleb. Both felt ambitious. And both looked ruffled. "So," Darlene huffed once she had entered the beige vehicle.

"So what?" Caleb stared deep within his adversary's eyeballs and felt no hint of love or appreciation. All he saw was a murderous monster, an unrepentant drunk.

She felt repentant for her actions but she didn't want to admit this to Caleb. Caleb knew her as the strong, persistent young lady he fell in love with, but she herself knew the falsity behind this. Only she knew what Serenity had done to her, and only she knew what nobody else could know. It had changed her, made her a better person, forced her to realize the mistakes she had committed in the past.

The car started with a thud. Caleb's eyes widened. He knew just as much as she did that it had broke down. Smoke rose from behind the vehicle.

"We have to get out of the car." Darlene admitted. She coughed. The smell was nauseating. Caleb did the same. It was beginning to suffocate them.

Caleb turned to her, coughed once more, then doubled over, head planted on the steering wheel, chest barely heaving. "Please! Don't die on me!" She wretched, the smoke consuming her, too, but she knew it was best to save him and let herself fade away. Her luck was beginning to shine when Caleb's chest begun to heave more and the smoke begun to withdraw. "Oh, thank goodness!" Darlene exclaimed. She leaned back against the solid seat and closed her eyes for a few moments.

* * *

Serenity looked at the mug of alcohol she was consuming and begun to reflect on her life thus far.

When she was born, less than twenty-five years ago, she had been born one month prematurely, and this disappointed her mother, Celeste, who thought she had aborted her child. Even the doctors swore she was aborted. She had tried to murder her infant multiple times only to be strictly scolded by her husband Flint, who wanted a child, particularly a sweet, beautiful one like Serenity.

"Are you done with that liquor?" A voice snapped her out of her reflection. She raised her eyes, as if pleading for mercy, and lowered them to her liquor, symbolizing she would indeed like a refill. The waitress obeyed her order and went and refilled it.

While she was gone Serenity suddenly had a painful flashback. She remembered a lot of arguments that had occurred between her mother and her father but this one in particular always stood out to her and always delivered the most pain.

_It was a stormy night outside. The rain pelleted against the wooden roof. Serenity was lying in her dilapidated bed._

_"She's not yours!" Her mother screeched from in the hallway. _

_"Well, if she's not mine, then who's is she?" Her father's frantic voice could be heard from what seemed like far away._

_"Who's do you think?" Her mother's voice rung through the air. _

_There was an eerie silence followed by a resounding thud and the cry of her mother._

"There's your refill." A voice once again snapped her out of her reflection.

"Thanks," she murmured, then sipped the delicious, comforting alcohol. Her life was just about to get a little more exciting.


	3. Third

"Please, Caleb, just stop the car." He looked over at her with a look of grim puzzlement illustrated upon the canvas that is his face. "You'll never find Serenity," Darlene continued.

Caleb's expression changed from happy to angry in less than a moment. He slammed his feet on the gas pedal as Darlene's anxiety begun to course through her veins.

"You can't tell me what I can and cannot do!" Caleb gritted his teeth, the look in his eyes unrepentant, and Darlene knew that she should never have questioned his abilities.

Darlene bit her tongue to stop herself from coming up with a retort. "I-I'm sorry, Caleb;" she huffed, and begun to retract her tears. "It's just that I feel there'll be no success."

"You know, Darlene; there was a time when I used to be just like you. I used to be a pessimist, never an optimist, but then I met Serenity."

Caleb stopped the tears from streaking his face and put the keys in ignition and started the car again.

"We're going to find her whether you like it or not." His voice wasn't as grim as before because Darlene knew Caleb's motivations.

* * *

Serenity slammed the glass of liquor down in unapologetic anger. Flashes of her childhood begun to reverberate throughout her mind. Her mother was evil and so was her father but the only one that was really and truly there for her was Caleb. It was like he was a respite from the danger. It was like he was the escape from the unimaginable horror.

"I know exactly what I need to do." She slurred. She had finally realized something she wouldn't have realized under different circumstances.

"I need to find Caleb," Serenity begun to lose her balance on the bar stool she had been sat on. "I need to find Caleb." She felt herself fall to the floor with a resounding thud.

* * *

Darlene looked to the side of her and saw the trees as they flew by. As she did so she wondered how her life would be like fifteen years from now. She asked herself if she would have fulfilled all her life's wishes, if she would have conquered all her worst fears, and every answer that she replied to herself with was a resounding no.

She knew if she hadn't spoken up and objected to Caleb's train of thought that she would be living with the grim consequences for the rest of her life. She knew someday Caleb would discover the secret she knew Serenity had long kept but she hoped it would be much later rather than much sooner.

"Caleb, I really, really don't think finding her is a good idea." In response, Caleb looked over at Darlene with irritability buried deep within his pupils. "What if you're shocked or disappointed by the outcome?" Darlene reasoned. She knew she would have to apply reason to this situation or she'd never get anywhere with this man.

He giggled, chuckled, then cleared his throat. Darlene looked puzzled, as if she had seen a stampede of goats in Antarctica. "Thing is I'm not going to be disappointed. In fact, when I find her, I'm going to be happier than ever before. I would know then that this God they speak of is wholly real and that he performs miracles to those who deserve it."

"Serenity probably never told you this but she was arrested not once but twice for the same crime." Caleb looked over at Darlene with betrayal, heartbreak, even bemusement. For once he didn't look scary or frightening or intimidating. He looked vulnerable and susceptible to heartbreak or nostalgia. It was almost as if Darlene was seeing a reformed Caleb.

"When she first moved out of her parent's house she was desperate for money-" Darlene begun, but Caleb huffed in denial. "What? I'm telling you the truth. If you don't want to hear it that's your choice but just know the lady you love really isn't the lady you think she is."

"Serenity was a beautiful princess. She was the lady of my dreams. Anything you say about her is invalid." Caleb denied all truth. Little did Darlene know the truth was lost on her.

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	4. Fourth

The sunlight glimmered ferociously atop the humid surface as Serenity tumbled forward and forced herself to exit the bar. She continued to progress forward even after the tears begun to diminish her eyesight. When she exited the bar everything became a blur. It was as if she was reliving her depressing childhood. She felt herself being thrown against the ground. She felt her shirt and pants being angrily torn off of her. The last thing she could recount was the oppressive glare of her captor as he begun to push himself into her.

* * *

"You know, Serenity _was _a bad person, but you were too infatuated with her to notice;" Darlene gritted her teeth so not to spout more - and while she looked out the window in utter defeat, Caleb turned to her with a look of murder painted upon his intimidating face.

Darlene did not notice but Caleb slowed the car down a little bit to turn his head toward her and grit his teeth in disgust. He was trying to resist flipping out but purportedly it was not working. "Take that back," he demanded, and Darlene turned around to see the look of disappointment on his face.

"Fuck you, Caleb;" Darlene continued to grit her teeth in resistance. She did not want to cry. She did not want to admit to herself that she had overstepped a boundary. She did not want to concede that she was outsmarted and ultimately defeated by her opponent - but she knew deep within her heart of hearts that she couldn't resist crying out in defeat.

"Alright, Darlene; let me level with you." He was not gritting his teeth, he was not trying to make himself seem intimidating, and he was not being crude. This may have been the first time that Caleb had actually displayed truly raw emotions. "If you do not allow me to find her then I will never move on and if I never move on... then I'll never be able to fall in love again."

Darlene wiped her snotty nose. She felt repentant for her actions but she also felt disappointed with Caleb for not telling her this earlier. She turned around and saw a thin figure on the side of the road, thumb outstretched, clothes ragged, skin bruised, and hair disheveled.


	5. Fifth

That moment had passed faster than it had arrived. She screamed and Caleb slammed his foot on the brakes. "W-What?" Caleb stuttered, and his expression changed from anger to joy in five seconds flat. He had finally reunited with his best friend and that was all that was on his mind. Now that he found his lover, nothing mattered to him - not Darlene, not the highway, not even his life.

"M-Ma'am," Caleb stuttered, gazed at Darlene, and repressed the tears as he motioned to the back seat. Darlene shook her head in empathy and did as she was instructed. Serenity stuttered, and pulled the fabric of clothing that she was endowed with to her chin so as to kindle some heat, to which Caleb raised his eyebrows, widened his eyes, and motioned to the passenger side seat.

"Thank you very much for finding me." Serenity looked out the window as the tears of trauma flew down her rosy, disheveled cheeks. "I don't think I would have been able to survive on my own without someone else to guide me through the rubble."

"You were always a very depressed person." Caleb turned his head to Serenity. "At least that's how I remember you. So has anything changed since I last saw you? Have you kindled new interests? Met someone else?"

"Well, sir, if you really must know, nothing much has happened with me." Darlene scoffed at this in the back seat. Serenity turned around and gave Darlene a dirty look. "Why'd you bring this bitch?" She asked, pointing her thumb to the back seat. "You do know what she did to me, right?"

"It's quite difficult to tell you this, considering you've clearly blocked it out, but she raped you, and that's why you feel indebted to her."

Caleb looked at her with disbelief. "I'm telling you the truth. I have no motive not to. I love you and you know this."

"That's a lie, Serenity. I have no memory of this happening. None at all. And I'm sure I would remember if she had done something like that to me."

He had ravenously belied the validity of Serenity's obscure accusation but deep down inside he knew the contents were true. Although he had desperately attempted to block it out he did remember that on dark and stormy nights he was raped by Darlene and he piercingly remembered pleading and pleading with her to stop.

He remembers all of it but all he wants to do is not confront it and block it out. For as long as he can remember he constantly deluded himself into believing Darlene had repented for her actions when in reality all the signs point to the exact opposite. She was by no means driven by Caleb's need for love or comfort or appreciation. What she was driven by, however, was the need for Caleb's pain, heartbreak and betrayal, thus leading to all the unfortunate turn of events and his frequent bouts of somberness.

"It's... It's... It's true." Caleb's lips fluttered under the weight of his tears. Serenity placed her hand on Caleb's back.

"Please, Caleb. You forgive me... Don't you?" Darlene practically begged and pleaded from the back seat but Caleb's eyes were too concentrated on the road to give any credence to the inhumanity living in the back seat. "Don't you see how Serenity always ruins everything? How we were so happy until Serenity entered the picture? Please, Caleb... Please tell me you see it."

"You listen here, you bitch." Serenity spit in the back seat and raised her fist so as to threaten Darlene. "You ruined my best friend's life. If it weren't for you I wouldn't have disappeared and if it weren't for you Caleb wouldn't be as grief stricken as he is now."

Darlene scuttled in the back seat and retracted her eyeballs. It was as if she had not expected Serenity to get so infuriated so quickly.

"So just shut your fucking mouth and wait until we get back home. You can go along with your daily life, but don't ever cross paths with my boyfriend again, or your ass is fucking grass." Serenity was doing a great job repressing her tears. She had been through far too much to allow this to penetrate her emotional sobriety. "Am I understood?"

Darlene shook her head in forced comprehension. "Alright." Serenity turned her head back to Caleb's and patted her hand on his back. She felt so in love with him that nothing - absolutely nothing - could destroy the connection at that very moment. "Now if you don't let it all out then you'll never move on."

"Please, Serenity... Please, please... Just tell me it's all a lie." Caleb's tears streaked down his fomenting cheeks. "I would be so much better off it were just you and me and no Darlene to complicate the matters," he admitted. There was a scoff in the backseat followed by an angry thud. "W-What happened?" Caleb's eyes widened and he looked sweaty, relieved, yet concerned and still unconcerned with what the answer may be.

Serenity looked quite serious. She did not look sad; however, she did look quite empathetic to how Caleb was feeling at that moment in time.

You see, he knew that he was feeling confused about this sudden and unsightly turn of events, but she also knew there was nothing she could do about it without distracting Caleb from his careful driving. She knew she'd have to tell him Darlene had took her own life, but she knew it'd be better to tell him later rather than sooner to preserve both of their lives and the lives of other drivers on the highway.

Caleb stuttered. He felt it difficult to control the progression of emotions which he had currently been experiencing.

"P-Please don't tell me she..." His voice trailed - and he suddenly felt anguished, depressed, even horrified by the sudden turn of events.

"Yes, Caleb - she killed herself - but don't allow this to distract you." Serenity informed Caleb about what had happened to Darlene, to which his expression was bland, unemotional, and quite depraved. "She did not like you. She liked you for who she made you and what she had forced you to do. What you and I have is different. I love you and accept you for who you are not for what I can make you."

"But Darlene helped me through the worst part of my life. I can't honor her by ignoring her. It would be utterly disproportionate to what she had done for me."

Caleb's lips continued to flutter under the weight of his tears - and although he noticed he had entered Rosewood, it had seemed like an eternity ago that he had allowed Serenity in the vehicle, and a lifetime ago that he had ventured off to search for her.

He did not regret one single moment of the adventure he had embarked on but what he did regret was bringing Darlene along with her - because if it weren't for her presence then the revelation of her indecencies and mistakes would never have been invoked.


	6. Epilogue

As Caleb begun to realize that everything he had experienced was one big, enormous lie, the tears of confusion begun to extricate its way down his rosy cheeks - and because of this it became coherent to him that he was never really present in this world to begin with. "I can't believe this is happening to me;" he placed his hands on his forehead, and reached over to Serenity, but sobbed even more when he realized the objects of his hallucinations were consistently intangible.

"Well believe it because it is happening and there is nothing you can do about it." The faint voice of Hanna's came from the abyss below. He tried to wrench himself from viewing the source of the delusion but he could not for whatever reason help himself. "H-Hanna? I-Is that you?" He stuttered, then felt afflicted with a sudden, rapacious bout of nausea, for he had caught himself in the process of constructing his very own delusion - and it had not been a very gentle cognizance to say the very least.

A slither like a snake's came from below and this caused Caleb's skin to crawl. His material emotions begun to wither away as did his awareness of the world around him. It was as if his very life was being taken from him. He felt the pinch of a sharp object as it was crudely injected into the last remaining bit of his skin. Flashes of his body lying against a hardwood floor paraded itself through his jumbled mind. He placed his withered hand on his injury and tried to push it to stifle the pain. It was of no use, though; his fate had already been chosen.

Although he was barely aware of his body being thrown onto a stretcher he was aware of the relief that was his entrance to Heaven.

His lips crinkled into a smile, and his hands outstretched, to which the bushy bearded man in front of him chuckled. "You are welcome to enter."

As he felt the stimulation coursing through his veins, he knew that appreciation would be the first and final act of proclamation he would ever experience.

He entered the pearly gates of Heaven and at the same time he felt every aspect that made him him being torn away from him and replaced by a mannequin that only looked subtly like him.


End file.
